Apparatus for purifying water.



No. 888,535. PATENTED DEC. 13, 1906. J.v B. GREER.

APPARATUS FOR PURIPYING WATER.

APPLICATION FILED JAN. 5, 1906.

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No. 838,535. PATENTED'DEU. 18, 1906. J. B. GREEK.

APPARATUS FOR PUR'IPYING WATER.

APPLICATION FILED JAN. 6, 1905.

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[III/III UNITED STATES PATENT onrron. I

JAMES BOYD GREEK, OF PITTSBURG, PENNSYLVANIA, ASSIGNOR TO GREEK FILTER COMPANY, OF PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA, A CORPORATION OF PENNSYLVANIA.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Dec. 18, 1906.

Application filed January 5,1905. Serial No. 239,711.

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, JAMES BOYD GREEK, of the city of Pittsburg, in the county of Allegheny and State of Pennsylvania, have invented a certain new and useful Improvement in Apparatus for Purifying Water, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, forming part of this specification, in which- Figure 1 is a vertical sectional view showing my improvement. Fig. 2 is a plan view of the motor and pumps. Fig. 3 is an elevation of the same. Fig. 4 is a detached view of the adjusting device by means of which the pitman of the pump is connected with the crank-lever disk, and Fig. 5 is a vertical sectional view of the mixer.

Like symbols of reference indicate like parts wherever they occur.

My invention relates to that class of a paratus for softening water in which the lime contained in the water is removed by precipitation by mixing with the water a solution of oxid of lime, which changes the soluble bicarbonate of lime in the water to carbonate of lime, and also by mixing a soda solution with the water to be softened, which changes the sulfate of lime into hydrate of lime, whlch hydrate acts on the bicarbonate of lime in the water and forms a precipitate consisting of carbonate of lime.

The object of my invention is to cause a thorough mixture of the water to be purified with the purifying solutions and the regulation of the supply of these reagents to the water, so that a complete purification and softening of the water may be accomplished, as is hereinafter more fully set forth.

I will now describe my invention, so that others skilled in the art may manufacture and use the same.

In the drawings, 2 represents the purifying-tank, within which the raw water is mixed with the purifying and softening reagents and is then separated therefrom and from the precipitate formed thereby, so that the pure and softened water may be drawn from the top of the tank, while the precipitate is drawn or removed from the bottom of the same.

In order to cause, first, a thorough mixin of the reagent solutions with the raw water;

second, a complete separation between the water and the precipitate formed by the reagents, and, third, the removal of the purified and softened water free from percipltate and other impurities, I divide the tank 2 into three portions or chambers: first, a central mixing conduit or chamber 3, which mayg be in the form of a vertical cylinder extending up through the central portion of the tank 2 to a point above the normal level of the water in the body of the tank, where it opens to permit the overflow .of the water from the chamber 3; second, a precipitating-chamber 4, surrounding the chamber 3 and into which the chamber 3 overflows. This chamber 4 is open at the top and bottom, and it opens at its base into the third chamber 5, which is formed by the walls of the tank 2. Within the chamber 3 are baffle or agitating lates 6, the purpose of which is to cause a t orough mixture of the raw water and the purifying and recipitating reagents as they pass upwar y through the mixin -chamber, thus bringing the raw water in t orough contact with the reagents.

Opening into the bottom of the chamber 3 is a raw-water pipe or conduit 7, which leads to this chamber from the source of supply. Situate below the tank 2 within the course of the conduit 7 and in the path of the water under pressure therein is a water-motor 8, which is shown in detail in Figs. 3 and 4 and may be of any suitable construction-that is, being provided with any operative means adapted to be operated by the flow of the water and to cause the shafts 9 to rotate. On the ends of one of the power-shafts 9 are pinions 10, which gear with gear-wheels 11, mounted on the shafts 12. Keyed to the shafts 12 are the crank-disks 13, to which are adjustably secured the pitmen 14 of the pumps 15, the adjustment being formed by a sliding nut adapted to travel in a groove in thumb-screw 16, Fig. 4. This enables the stroke of the pum s to be so regulated as to cause a greater or ess proportion of reagents to be supplied to the water in the tank 2.

ing tank 17 and the soda-mixing tank 18, one of the pumps 15 being connected with the soda-tank, and the other pump being con- 1 nected with the lime-solution tankby. suitthe face of the disk and to be secured by a At the sides of the motor 8 are the lime-mix- I nected by gear-wheel 23 By means of into the mixing-chamber 3 operates the raw-water conduit 7 directly above the pump,

connected with the motor to a sprocketalittle above its middle portion, so that the raw Water is caused to mix with the lime the tank a by an overflow-pipe d, which from a pure-water supplythat is, from thereof.

able pipes provided with closing and opening valves. Within these tanks are the agitators 19 and 20, adapted to be operated by beveled gearing 21, to which motion is imparted by means of spur-wheels 22 on the shaft 23, which shaft is operated by a sprocket extending from a sprocket-wheel Wheel 24, keyed to the other of the power shafts 9. The two power-shafts 9 are conthis arrangement the raw water as it passes pumps, which draw the lime and soda water from the mixing-tanks and deliver the same to the water passing to the mixing-chamber 3. 'I prefer to cause the pipe 25, leading from the lime-solution pump 15,to enter the and the pipe 26, leading from the soda-solution pump, to enter the chamber 3 at a point solution before it enters the chamber 3 and during its passage through a portion of the same before the soda solution is brought in contact therewith.

The lime-mixing tank 17 is shown in section in Fig. 5, and'it is formed in two parts separated from each other, the central tank or vessel (1 containing the agitator and having the inlet-pipe 36, which leads from the pure-water conduit 33 and enters the base of the tank. Surrounding the central tank a is an outer tank 0, which communicates with leads from the upper portion of the tank a to the bottom of the tank 0. At the upper portion of the tank 0 is a filter f, through which the solution of lime must pass before itpasses by the pipe g to the pump 15. The soda-mixing vessel may be of the same construction as the lime-tank, or it may be a single tank containing an agitator.

Situate at one-side of the lime-solution tank 17 is a lime-slaking boX or vessel 27, in which the lime is slaked before it passes into the lime-mixer tank a, and'at the side of the soda-tank 18 is a chamber 28, in which the soda is placed before it passes into the sodamixing chamber 18. The water-supply to the chambers 27 and 28 is preferably drawn water which has passed through the tank 2 and has been purified and softened.

It should be noticed that the 1pipe g, leading from the lime-agitator tan; 17 to the pump 15, leads from the agitator-tank at the upper portion of the same above the filterf. It should also be noticed that the pipe or con duit 36, which supplies pure water to the agitator-tank, enters the same at the base The consequence of this is that a pure solution is drawn from the lime-tank and pure water is supplied .thereto for the l ranged that the water which rises in this chamber shall be compelled to pass through the filter before it reaches'the overflow-pipe 33, by means of which pipe the purified and softened water is drawn from the'tank. At the top of the chamber 5 is a well 31, closed at the top and open at the bottom, inwhich is a float 32, adapted to float on the surface of the waterin the well. Leading from the float 32 is a cordor chain 33, which passes over suitable blocks to a point outside of the tank 2 and down to a weighted lever 34. This lever 34 is connected with a valve arranged in the conduit 7. The float 32 is normallysupported by a trigger 40, which engages with the float or with a projectioneX- tending from the rod thereof. This trigger is at one end of the bell-crank lever 41. A float 42 is at the other end of the lever. When the water in the tank 5 falls'below the normal level, the float 42, sinking with the water, draws the trigger away from the float,

permitting the float to fall suddenly and to pull on the cord 33 This opens the valve 34, allowing a larger supply of raw water to pass into the mixing-chamber 3. water rises, the floats 32 and 42 also rise, and the trigger 40 again engages with the float 32 in such a manner as to support the same. The purpose of the well is to prevent the operation of the float from being obstructed by the freezing of the water.

The operation of my improved apparatus is as follows: As the raw water passes through the conduit 7 into the motor 8 and from this into the mixing-chamber 3 it operates the motor and causes the same to pump the reagentsa solution of lime and a solution of sodathe one into the conduit-7 and the.

other into the mixing-chamber 3, so that as the water passes through the mixing-chamber 3 about the baflie-plates 6 it is thoroughly mixed with the reagents before it overflows from the upper portion of the mixing-chant ber 3 into the settling or precipitating chamber 4. As the water and reagents mixed together flow from the upper portion of the mixing-chamber 3 into the precipitating or settling chamber 4 the precipitate settles to the bottom of the hopper-shaped base of the tank 2, from which it may. from time to time be drawn off through the conduit 35.

- The purified water passing down through the precipitating-chamber 4 and out at the base of the same passes up in the purifying- VVhen thev IIO chamber 5, through the filter 29, and into the pure-water conduit 33, which conduit leads to the place where the water is to be used or stored.

Although I have described and shown apparatus of certain formthat is, shape, size, and arrangement-I do not desire to limit myself thereto, as the parts may be changed in shape, size, form, and arrangement with out departing from my invention.

The advantages of my invention will be appreciated by those skilled in the art. The pumps being driven by the raw water passing into the purifying-tank, the amount of precipitating reagents supplied to the tank will at all times be regulated according to the rate of flow of the water, and whenever the flow ceases or lessens, owing to the tank 2 being full, the passage of the reagents also ceases or lessens through the slowing and stoppage of the pumps. This is a great advantage, as it renders the operation of the apparatus entirely automatic.

Another advantage of my improvement is that the agitators are driven by the motors which supply the reagents. This not only economizes power by the use of the water as a motive agent, but it also lessens the wear on the agitators, as the operation of the same is automatically stopped or slackened whenever the passage of reagents to the tank lessens or ceases.

Another advantage of my invention is that the flow of raw water to the tank is controlled by the amount of water within the tank and the withdrawal of the same therefrom.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

1. In apparatus for purifying water, the combination of a mixing chamber, receptacles for containing the purifying reagents, a conduit directly connected to the mixingchamber for supplying water under the pressure in said conduit to the mixing-chamber, a motor in the line of said conduit adapted to be operated by the pressure of the water in the conduit, apparatus adapted to be driven by said motor to cause a flow of reagents from said receptacles to the mixing-chamber proportional to the flow of water passing to said miXingchamber through said conduit, a reservoir for the purified water, and devices located in said reservoir and adapted to be operated by the water therein to control the supply of raw water through said conduit and in consequence the amount of raw water and reagents supplied to the mixing-chamber; substantially as described.

2. In apparatus for purifying water, the combination of a mixing-chamber, receptacles for containing the purifying reagents,

a conduit directly connectedto the mixingchamber for supplying water under the pressure in said conduit to the mixing-chamber, a motor in the line of said conduit and adapted to be operated by the pressure of the water in the conduit, agitators in said receptacles connected to the motor and driven thereby, apparatus adapted to be driven by said motor to cause a flow of reagents from said receptacles to the mixing-chamber proportional to the flow of water passing to said mixing-chamber through said conduit, a reservoir for the purified water, and devices located in said reservoir and adapted to be operated by the water therein to control the supply of raw water through said conduit and in consequence the amount or raw water and reagents supplied to the mixing-chamber, substantially as described.

3. In apparatus for piu'itying water, a purifying-tank having a float arranged in the top of said tank, a raw-water-supply pipe leading to the bottom of said tank and provided with a valve near the bottom of said tank, and a cord connected to the valve and to the float whereby a movement of the valve follows any variation in the level of the water within the tank, substantially as described.

4. In apparatus for purifying water, a

purifying-tank having a float therein pro-' vided with a trigger, a raw-water-supply pipe leading to said tank and provided With a valve, and a second float connected to said valve and arranged to open and close the same with varying levels of water in the tank, substantially as described.

5. In apparatus for purifying water, a purifying-tank, a mixing-chamber arranged within the purifying-tank, having the inlet for raw water at its lower end and overflow- IIO ber at a distance above the entrance of the raw-water-supply pipe, substantially as described.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand.

JAMES BOYD GREER. Witnesses A. M. STEEN, JAMES K. BAKEWELL. 

